Was a Phoenix affiliate of Fox News part of an attempt to defraud voters by calling the Arizona governor's race 12 days before Election Day? No, that's not true: While the affiliate, Fox 10 Phoenix, did accidentally air a graphic in late October that showed Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs defeating Republican candidate Kari Lake by six points, the station acknowledged…

Are the ExpressPoll pollbook devices used in Dallas County for the 2022 general election operating on out-of-date software? No, that's not true: ExpressPoll Version 7.2.3.0, the up-to-date version, was certified by the Texas Secretary of State's office in May 2022, its spokesperson Sam Taylor confirmed to Lead Stories. "Dallas County would not have been able to use them if they…

Does the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants' driver's license show an address on one of the late Jeffrey Epstein's private islands in a cartoon on the Nickelodeon channel? No, that's not true: A post making the claim never shows or gives a purported address for the cartoon character. And a spokesperson for Nickelodeon tells Lead Stories, "This claim is incorrect." The…

Was a doctor tried and executed in Malaysia for "giving the bioweapon vaccine and killing a patient" under the Nuremberg Code? No, that's not true: Malaysia stopped executing people in 2018 and hasn't reversed the moratorium on capital punishment since then. The claim originated in a video (archived here) shared on Telegram on November 3, 2022, by the user named…

Did CNN publish a story about a man who attempted suicide, only to be sentenced to death in 2018? No, that's not true: CNN never published such a story, a spokeswoman for the network told Lead Stories. The headline featured in the claim is available for download from an online meme repository. The claim's image does not depict a death-row…

Is it scientifically proven that so-called "face mapping" or "face reading" offers a map of disease or illness in the body? No, that's not true: Looking at blemishes on the face to determine what's happening in the body is an alternative medical practice that dates back to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which is thousands of years old, but it is…

Was there a gunfight between federal agents and U.S. Marines at the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, D.C., on November 8, 2022? No, that's not true: A public information officer for the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C. told Lead Stories that this claim was not accurate. The claim of a gunfight came from Real Raw News, a website that…

Did garbage collectors "from L.A. County California, to Chavez County New Mexico," find "thousands of midterm ballots" in the trash before the 2022 midterm elections? No, that's not true: The photos used in this claim are from news articles from 2020. Both photos indicated that U.S. postal mail had been diverted from its standard route, but neither photo was from…

Does a filing on the Florida Secured Transaction Registry show that Anthony Fauci, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and many other public servants are involved with a diamond business in Sulphur, Oklahoma? No, that's not true: There is no business by that name registered in Oklahoma. The Registry filing made by Paul Michael Walters does not appear to be a record…

Does a viral video show election workers in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, commiting voter fraud in November 2022? No, that's not true: This exact video and claim were previously debunked in 2020. The election worker shown was manually transcribing damaged ballots, Delaware County officials said. No proof has emerged that the two individuals featured were not adhering to the Pennsylvania election…

Were "poll pads" in Texas caught adding "hundreds" of voters in real time as a poll was being closed? No, that's not true: The state-certified Election Systems & Software (ES&S) voting systems e-pollbooks in Dallas County, Texas, previously experienced "some delay in the downloading" of checked-in voters and then caught up, according to the Texas Secretary of State. "The updating…

Was U.S. government aid to Ukraine misused by funding Democratic candidates during midterm campaigns through the crypto exchange FTX? No, that's not true: Social media posts did not differentiate between private donations and U.S. government funds allocated to support Ukraine, and no reliable sources reported that either of those was invested in FTX. The claim appeared in re-posts identical to…

Did a Republican poll watcher in Arizona have access to voter check-in information where she claims to have seen evidence that 200 extra ballots were counted? No, that's not true: The Maricopa County Elections Department told Lead Stories that "[p]olitical [p]arty observers do not have access to voter check-in data," plus "there are processes in place every election to reconcile…

Do large downticks in cumulative voting graphs for the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate and governor's races prove election fraud? No, that's not true: Edison Research, which supplies election data to news organization websites, told Lead Stories that the downticks shown by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell on social media and on his Frank Speech website -- totaling tens of thousands of…

Does a video show an "Iranian whistleblower" revealing how they hacked a federal voter registration database during the U.S. 2020 election and created fraudulent overseas ballots? No, that's not true: The footage -- shown at an election integrity event in October -- includes a screen recording that the U.S. Justice Department already determined is intended to mislead people. It does…

Does a photograph of a packed street in the city of Sao Paulo show thousands of Brazilians protesting against alleged voter fraud after the country's 2022 presidential election? No, that's not true: The picture is from a 2016 protest against corruption. The claim appeared in an Instagram post on November 13, 2022, with the title "Brazil is Doing This Correct…

Are zip ties being attached to trash cans outside homes in a Texas college town to target the women who live there for assault? No, that's not true: Police in College Station, Texas, say they and other law enforcement agencies have investigated and found no credible evidence to support the claim. The claim appeared in an Instagram post on November…

Was it suspicious that more Democrats in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, requested mail-in ballots than Democrats in Philadelphia County, even though 273,765 fewer registered Democratic voters live in Allegheny County in 2022? No, that's not true: This also happened in 2018 and 2016, according to a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State, who added, "There is no evidence of fraud."…

Is Seattle billionaire Bill Gates now chairman of the Maricopa County, Arizona Board of Supervisors? No, that's not true: A representative for Maricopa County told Lead Stories that a different Bill Gates serves Maricopa County. Gates the billionaire and villain of many conspiracy theories, is a longtime resident of Seattle, where the company he co-founded, Microsoft, is headquartered. The claim…

Did The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) host a contemporary dance performance that some commenters have called "demonic" at one of its conferences? No, that's not true: The performance took place in 2017 at Ghent University, Belgium and had nothing to do with any collective-security meeting. The claim appeared in a November 11, 2022 Instagram post on the tartarian_world account.…